Enhancement of OER has been demonstrated via co-doping of Co/Ni into FeS2, which surpasses the performance of traditional expensive RuO2 as OER electrocatalyst.
Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is normally sluggish, which hinders most of related electrochemical applications. In this work, Co/Ni co-doped pyrite FeS2 have been synthesized using one-pot hydrothermal process, which renders enhancement in spin polarization, electron transport, and lowering energy barriers for oxygen-oxygen bond formation. The study is published in Small.
The optimized 6% Co, 2% Ni-FeS2 shows an overpotential of 193 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 55 mV dec−1, and high durability in OER, which surpasses the precious RuO2.
“Detailed in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES), Fourier transformed spectra (EXFAS) and electron spin resonance (EPR) have been applied to confirm the electron spin engineering,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Kuei-Hsien Chen, distinguished research fellow at Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica and Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, National Taiwan University.
“Density function theory (DFT) and atomic resolution STEM have been performed to understand the spin channels enhanced OER effect.”
This work is under the co-supervision of Dr. Chen-Hsiung Hung (Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica), Dr. Ming-Chang Lin (Department of Applied Chemistry, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University), Dr. Li-Chyong Chen (Department of Physics, National Taiwan University) and Dr. Kuei-Hsien Chen (Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, National Taiwan University).
Dr. Kuei-Hsien Chen's email address: chenkh@pub.iams.sinica.edu.tw
To see article on Asia Research News: https://www.asiaresearchnews.com/content/enhanced-spin-channels-spin-regulated-pyrite-fes2-efficient-oer